Suma Josson is an Indian-American journalist and filmmaker. Her
documentary film Niyamgiri, You are still alive, on the ecological and
human damage done by bauxite mining, won a first prize in the Short
Film, Environment category at the 2010 International Film Festival of
India.She was born in Kerala, India and graduated in English
Literature from the University of Minnesota, United States. She began
her career as a journalist at Press Trust of India, and in 1992
switched over to the visual media. She has made a number of
documentary films. She has published three books: Poems and Plays, A
Harvest of Light (a collection of plays), and Circumferences (a
novel).Her debut film was Janmadhinam which won three state awards,
and was screened at various international film festivals including the
1999 Berlin Festival. She was one of the five women filmmakers
commissioned to make a documentary Trading Images on the subject
'women's space' in a German international coproduction. Saree is her
second feature film.Sarasu has come to the hospital to deliver her
baby. Amma, her mother, is with her, to assist her. The actual
time-span of the film is a single night which the mother and the
daughter spend at the hospital. Sarasu, a TV-reporter working in
Bombay, keeps a diary into which she pours her inner-most feelings. We
find out that Sarasu was forced by her father to marry Raghu, although
she was in love with Ajay, a cameraman. A few months after her
marriage, she passes through Bombay to join her husband. On the way,
she meets Ajay in his flat. This is during the '1993 communal violence
in Bombay. In the aftermath of this meeting, Sarasu is finally forced
to make a choice. And Amma realizes that she also has to take a stand,
as a result of Sarasu's choice. It is this unspoken, unseen, subtle
tension between mother and daughter, and a slow psychological
unfolding of the personal histories of the main characters, which form
the content of this film.
documentary film Niyamgiri, You are still alive, on the ecological and
human damage done by bauxite mining, won a first prize in the Short
Film, Environment category at the 2010 International Film Festival of
India.She was born in Kerala, India and graduated in English
Literature from the University of Minnesota, United States. She began
her career as a journalist at Press Trust of India, and in 1992
switched over to the visual media. She has made a number of
documentary films. She has published three books: Poems and Plays, A
Harvest of Light (a collection of plays), and Circumferences (a
novel).Her debut film was Janmadhinam which won three state awards,
and was screened at various international film festivals including the
1999 Berlin Festival. She was one of the five women filmmakers
commissioned to make a documentary Trading Images on the subject
'women's space' in a German international coproduction. Saree is her
second feature film.Sarasu has come to the hospital to deliver her
baby. Amma, her mother, is with her, to assist her. The actual
time-span of the film is a single night which the mother and the
daughter spend at the hospital. Sarasu, a TV-reporter working in
Bombay, keeps a diary into which she pours her inner-most feelings. We
find out that Sarasu was forced by her father to marry Raghu, although
she was in love with Ajay, a cameraman. A few months after her
marriage, she passes through Bombay to join her husband. On the way,
she meets Ajay in his flat. This is during the '1993 communal violence
in Bombay. In the aftermath of this meeting, Sarasu is finally forced
to make a choice. And Amma realizes that she also has to take a stand,
as a result of Sarasu's choice. It is this unspoken, unseen, subtle
tension between mother and daughter, and a slow psychological
unfolding of the personal histories of the main characters, which form
the content of this film.
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